Sam Walsh - the personal journey of a captain of industry

The head of the world's second largest mining company reflects on a life in business, spending a month of the year on airplanes and how losing his father as a child shaped his life.

Speaking in an extended interview with Geoff Hutchison on 720 ABC Perth, Sam Walsh summed himself up as "a bit of everything".

"Most importantly I'm chief executive of Rio Tinto, but I'm also a husband and a father and a grandfather and I'm somebody who really enjoys what he is doing," Sam Walsh said.

Since January 2013 Sam Walsh has been the head of the Rio Tinto Group, based in London, and he estimates he spends a month of every year on planes, flying to different parts of the business.

Life started much more quietly; in 1949, in the Melbourne seaside suburb of Brighton, where he was one of five children. He recalls an active life of weekly church going, scouting and learning to play the piano and the trumpet.

Everything changed when he was 15-years-old, and his father died suddenly.

"My father was quite ill, he had a number of operations, but as a young kid you don't actually put two and two together. He died of a heart attack," he said.

I’m a bit of everything. Most importantly I’m chief executive of Rio Tinto, but I’m also a husband and a father and a grandfather and I’m somebody who really enjoys what he is doing.

Sam Walsh, CEO of Rio Tinto

"My mother had never even written a cheque, she had never looked after the bills and that was a role I stepped into. I was managing the home finances and being the leader of the family, which continued on.

"You lose a lot. You lose the father figure, the advice and counsel.

"There's something lost that you don't get back. But if I look back, it did throw me in the deep end early and I swam and swam well."

Mr Walsh graduated in commerce from Melbourne University and began his career as a trainee buyer at General Motors. He later moved onto work at Nissan and in 1991 joined Rio Tinto, where he has remained ever since. From 2004 until 2013, he was based in Perth as the head of iron ore division.

In January 2013 he was made CEO of the Rio Tinto group, the world's second largest mining company, and moved to London where he was immediately tasked with turning the companies fortunes around.

"I didn't immediately say yes," he said of the offer, "but I said yes because I love the company."

"About half way through first day, it dawned on me, I could see what had to be done.

"We had veered away from the tried and proven. We had headed off on a tangent chasing growth and diluting the very strong systems that we had.

"If I get us back on track to where we were, the way we used to do things, everything will be fine and it's true."

At age 64, Sam Walsh said he has no plans to retire but also observes, laughing, that if the job disappeared he would be just fine.

"I'm around for as long or short as the board wants me, as long as I'm adding value," he said.

Looking back over his career, he said, with emotion, "I think my father would be very proud of me".